Hubert Monteilhet's novel has been filmed three times I saw two of them. The 1960's Return From The Ashes and this one, Phoenix (2014) - the one I haven't seen is a TV version from the 1980's Le retour d'Elisabeth Wolff, but now I really want to see it. Phoenix is a moody, painful journey to a rebirth. Nina Hoss is lovely as the survivor, Ronald Zehofeld plays the husband, object of her obsession. He's an interesting actor, a mix between Benicio del Toro and the young Orson Welles. Their scenes together have a realistic, tangible suspense. But Christian Petzold, the director of Jerichow (2008), gives the whole film a severe pace and tone, the 1964 version has a sharp, sophisticated script by Julius J Epstein with titles like Casablanca to his credit and J Lee Thompson at the helm, Thompson directed films like The Guns Of Navarone, Cape Fear and What A Way To Go. So his version, Return From The Ashes, is a whole other experience, at time it's even funny. With a superlative international cast cast, Maximilian Schell, Ingrid Thulin and Samantha Eggar - So one can see both films as it they weren't even related.
89 Reviews
Great acting and interesting themes propels this simple and successful film.
texshelters13 September 2015
Phoenix: Ziemlich großes Kino!
Phoenix is a simple film with complicated themes of identity, survival, and loss. It is not your normal post WWII film, nor is it your typical concentration camp survivor story. The main character, Nelly, was in a camp and her trauma is reflected in the desperation of a divided Berlin. Her interactions with others are clearly influenced by her time in the camps, and Nina Hoss wonderfully portrays the protagonist.
Unfortunately, the actor who plays the lead male, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld) is relatively ineffective compared to the stunning Hoss. I am not sure whether is is the script or the acting, but he clearly isn't up to her level. Nelly's best friend, Lena, is performed with skill by Nina Kunzendorf. While not as remarkable as Hoss, she holds her own in their scenes together.
The look of the film is lovely, but it is clearly made on a budget. The music is appropriate for the mood and the era, though a couple of times too loud and overly dramatic. The pace is deliberate and effective.
It is a good film that offers us no answers to the questions it poses: how do we survive after everything is taken away, how do we return to a life that no longer exists, whom do we trust now when many of our old friends were Nazi or collaborators during the war, how do we react to someone who returns who we thought was dead, and where do we go when nothing is left of our former life. In the film, like life, there are no easy answers. That only strengthens the film's appeal.
Rating: Pay full price.
I don't want to say to much for fear of giving too much away. The film, while not shocking, is not predicable.
Peace, Tex Shelters
Phoenix is a simple film with complicated themes of identity, survival, and loss. It is not your normal post WWII film, nor is it your typical concentration camp survivor story. The main character, Nelly, was in a camp and her trauma is reflected in the desperation of a divided Berlin. Her interactions with others are clearly influenced by her time in the camps, and Nina Hoss wonderfully portrays the protagonist.
Unfortunately, the actor who plays the lead male, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld) is relatively ineffective compared to the stunning Hoss. I am not sure whether is is the script or the acting, but he clearly isn't up to her level. Nelly's best friend, Lena, is performed with skill by Nina Kunzendorf. While not as remarkable as Hoss, she holds her own in their scenes together.
The look of the film is lovely, but it is clearly made on a budget. The music is appropriate for the mood and the era, though a couple of times too loud and overly dramatic. The pace is deliberate and effective.
It is a good film that offers us no answers to the questions it poses: how do we survive after everything is taken away, how do we return to a life that no longer exists, whom do we trust now when many of our old friends were Nazi or collaborators during the war, how do we react to someone who returns who we thought was dead, and where do we go when nothing is left of our former life. In the film, like life, there are no easy answers. That only strengthens the film's appeal.
Rating: Pay full price.
I don't want to say to much for fear of giving too much away. The film, while not shocking, is not predicable.
Peace, Tex Shelters
Film noir meets "Face/Off" ...and the result is incredible
rooprect14 May 2021
The story is deliberately preposterous. In fact, it *must* be preposterous in order for the metaphor to work. A disfigured concentration camp survivor "Nelly" undergoes facial reconstruction which makes her so unrecognizable that her own husband doesn't recognize her; instead he insists that his wife is dead. But he wants to use Nelly as an imposter so he can collect her inheritance.
If this brings to mind the idea of Nicolas Cage and John Travolta swapping faces in the awesomely bad "Face/Off", then you're not far off the mark. But listen up, here's why it works perfectly.
The theme of "Phoenix" involves how people face an unacceptable past. There are 3 main characters who each personify a particular, extreme response. It has to be extreme, it has to be preposterous, and most importantly we have to accept it. Either that or just walk out of the theater after 5 minutes and watch Monday night football instead. Our 3 characers are: 1) Nelly - she cannot let go of her traumatic past, and at the same time she has no past because she has no identity, figuratively and literally. 2) The husband "Johnny" - he utterly rejects the past, for reasons you'll figure out soon enough, and so he refuses to recognize his wife. In fact, we get the feeling that even if she were the spitting image of herself, he would still refuse truth. Such is the nature of psychological denial. And 3) We have Nelly's only friend "Lena" who has become a tireless political activist, saving survivors and trying to keep the past "alive" even though she is confronted with a society that has already moved on.
So you see how this story isn't supposed to be taken as a literal drama but rather as a very creative metaphor to illustrate how psychology works in 3 vastly different personality types. Further driving the surreal nature home, we have gorgeously shot, vividly composed visuals. If you ever wondered how Film Noir would look in color, then look no further. There have been a few contemporary classics which sought to bring Film Noir into the modern age, such as 2005's "Sin City" with its introduction of red to the crisp b&w palette, or before that was 1994's "The Crow" with its use of extreme darkness and "dead" colors. Here in 2014's is the next decade's evolution. In this case there is bold use of colors, but they are distinctly and "impossibly" presented: a dark alley is illuminated with a ghostly red light even though there are no red light sources to be seen, or a dark scene of bombed out ruins has unrealistic islands of light illuminating patches of rubble, all in vivid color but with stark contrast against the black spaces. The cinematography and lighting is as purposely unrealistic as the plot.
Ultimately if you grasp all of this, or if you just decide to go along with it for the sake of seeing how everything turns out, your suspension of disbelief will be amply rewarded. As nearly every other reviewer has noted, the ending is fantastic. Beyond fantastic, it's the whole point of the movie. In an interview, director Christian Petzold says the entire story comes down to the last 3 minutes, and that's where it will either come together or utterly fall apart. For my money, it's a total winner. "Phoenix" definitely does NOT crash & burn.
If this brings to mind the idea of Nicolas Cage and John Travolta swapping faces in the awesomely bad "Face/Off", then you're not far off the mark. But listen up, here's why it works perfectly.
The theme of "Phoenix" involves how people face an unacceptable past. There are 3 main characters who each personify a particular, extreme response. It has to be extreme, it has to be preposterous, and most importantly we have to accept it. Either that or just walk out of the theater after 5 minutes and watch Monday night football instead. Our 3 characers are: 1) Nelly - she cannot let go of her traumatic past, and at the same time she has no past because she has no identity, figuratively and literally. 2) The husband "Johnny" - he utterly rejects the past, for reasons you'll figure out soon enough, and so he refuses to recognize his wife. In fact, we get the feeling that even if she were the spitting image of herself, he would still refuse truth. Such is the nature of psychological denial. And 3) We have Nelly's only friend "Lena" who has become a tireless political activist, saving survivors and trying to keep the past "alive" even though she is confronted with a society that has already moved on.
So you see how this story isn't supposed to be taken as a literal drama but rather as a very creative metaphor to illustrate how psychology works in 3 vastly different personality types. Further driving the surreal nature home, we have gorgeously shot, vividly composed visuals. If you ever wondered how Film Noir would look in color, then look no further. There have been a few contemporary classics which sought to bring Film Noir into the modern age, such as 2005's "Sin City" with its introduction of red to the crisp b&w palette, or before that was 1994's "The Crow" with its use of extreme darkness and "dead" colors. Here in 2014's is the next decade's evolution. In this case there is bold use of colors, but they are distinctly and "impossibly" presented: a dark alley is illuminated with a ghostly red light even though there are no red light sources to be seen, or a dark scene of bombed out ruins has unrealistic islands of light illuminating patches of rubble, all in vivid color but with stark contrast against the black spaces. The cinematography and lighting is as purposely unrealistic as the plot.
Ultimately if you grasp all of this, or if you just decide to go along with it for the sake of seeing how everything turns out, your suspension of disbelief will be amply rewarded. As nearly every other reviewer has noted, the ending is fantastic. Beyond fantastic, it's the whole point of the movie. In an interview, director Christian Petzold says the entire story comes down to the last 3 minutes, and that's where it will either come together or utterly fall apart. For my money, it's a total winner. "Phoenix" definitely does NOT crash & burn.
The fate of one woman
Horst_In_Translation27 October 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Director Christian Petzold and actress Nina Hoss have worked on several projects together in the past. It is one of the most notable duos in German cinema right now and as she was the female lead in his last three films, you could probably even call her his muse. Generally, Petzold is a guy who seems to like working with the same people. Others he frequently cast are Benno Fürmann, Julia Hummer or Ronald Zehrfeld, who also is the male lead in "Phoenix" and has been very prolific in German cinema recently. Petzold wrote the film with the recently deceased Harun Farocki, also not a first-timer. The two went way back.
Hoss plays a woman who survived Nazi death camp in the 1940s and is now looking for her husband who possibly betrayed her and told the Nazis where to find her in order to save his own life and career. When she does, he does not recognize her due to facial surgery, but sees the resemblance and tries to start an fraud in order to get his wife's inheritance.
It's a good movie with a very strong performance by Hoss, a decent effort from Zehrfeld and good work by the talented supporting players who you may only know if you're really interested in German cinema, although they have won several awards already here. The true highlight is the ending. I'm not too fond of the film's title. You could probably find some metaphoric resemblance, but mostly it is just the name of the club where the two met again. They could have come up with something better here. Obviously Petzold loves one-word titles. You may want to watch this if you like German cinema or just World-War-II related movies although this one is really much more about the characters, especially the lead character, than really about historic significance. Recommended.
Hoss plays a woman who survived Nazi death camp in the 1940s and is now looking for her husband who possibly betrayed her and told the Nazis where to find her in order to save his own life and career. When she does, he does not recognize her due to facial surgery, but sees the resemblance and tries to start an fraud in order to get his wife's inheritance.
It's a good movie with a very strong performance by Hoss, a decent effort from Zehrfeld and good work by the talented supporting players who you may only know if you're really interested in German cinema, although they have won several awards already here. The true highlight is the ending. I'm not too fond of the film's title. You could probably find some metaphoric resemblance, but mostly it is just the name of the club where the two met again. They could have come up with something better here. Obviously Petzold loves one-word titles. You may want to watch this if you like German cinema or just World-War-II related movies although this one is really much more about the characters, especially the lead character, than really about historic significance. Recommended.
One of the greatest film endings. Ever.
Luddify16 July 2017
You do have to suspend a bit of disbelief to get there on the haunting journey, but the movie's final scene will stay with you forever. Amazing performances by the two leads and assured, understated directing that only intensifies the climax.
Absolutely not to be missed, even (or particularly) if you think you've seen every possible treatment of the toll of the Holocaust on individual lives.
Absolutely not to be missed, even (or particularly) if you think you've seen every possible treatment of the toll of the Holocaust on individual lives.
Simply a superior film.
JohnDeSando24 September 2015
"Tomorrow is here, tomorrow is near and always too soon." Kurt Weill
Even if you're a disfigured Holocaust survivor like Nelly (Nina Hoss), tomorrow's march of time will bring its own survival scenario. Her new face gives her problems with her husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld), as he recruits her to impersonate his wife in order to get his wife's inheritance. As in Hitchcock's Vertigo, the lead female undergoes transformation dealing with the man in her life while sustaining the mistaken identity motif.
Even that plot feels Hitchcockean. No question it's a classic suspend-your-disbelief situation, and it has the almost dreamy quality of Boy in the Striped Pajama. Both works take an isolated, unbelievable scenario related to the Holocaust that nevertheless illuminates the numbing, existential anguish of that horror.
While Nelly searches for Johnny, she is also discovering strength in herself that is part survival and part recognition that the corruption of Auschwitz is not the only corruption in the world. The depiction of that dark postwar world has German expressionism written all over it with the black and white contrasts, lonely European streets and even the corruption and irony of the cabaret.
Nina Hoss's performance, part stunned and part determined, deserves award-season recognition. Her uncertain gait and disfigured face suggest the disorientation the war has brought.
Director Christian Petzold deserves credit for the stunning noirish look that also reflects a real-world, anytime struggle humans have with the combat between appearance and reality and the realization that we cannot know each other completely. As the title suggests and the name of the night club reflects, regeneration is possible but may be as elusive as the mythical bird.
"No movie has ever been able to provide a catharsis for the Holocaust, and I suspect none will ever be able to provide one for 9/11. Such subjects overwhelm art." Roger Ebert
Even if you're a disfigured Holocaust survivor like Nelly (Nina Hoss), tomorrow's march of time will bring its own survival scenario. Her new face gives her problems with her husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld), as he recruits her to impersonate his wife in order to get his wife's inheritance. As in Hitchcock's Vertigo, the lead female undergoes transformation dealing with the man in her life while sustaining the mistaken identity motif.
Even that plot feels Hitchcockean. No question it's a classic suspend-your-disbelief situation, and it has the almost dreamy quality of Boy in the Striped Pajama. Both works take an isolated, unbelievable scenario related to the Holocaust that nevertheless illuminates the numbing, existential anguish of that horror.
While Nelly searches for Johnny, she is also discovering strength in herself that is part survival and part recognition that the corruption of Auschwitz is not the only corruption in the world. The depiction of that dark postwar world has German expressionism written all over it with the black and white contrasts, lonely European streets and even the corruption and irony of the cabaret.
Nina Hoss's performance, part stunned and part determined, deserves award-season recognition. Her uncertain gait and disfigured face suggest the disorientation the war has brought.
Director Christian Petzold deserves credit for the stunning noirish look that also reflects a real-world, anytime struggle humans have with the combat between appearance and reality and the realization that we cannot know each other completely. As the title suggests and the name of the night club reflects, regeneration is possible but may be as elusive as the mythical bird.
"No movie has ever been able to provide a catharsis for the Holocaust, and I suspect none will ever be able to provide one for 9/11. Such subjects overwhelm art." Roger Ebert
Simple but compelling and beautifully made.
aaskillz6914 November 2014
"Do you recognize me?" -Nelly
Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival #6
Phoenix has been one film that has been going through the fall film festival circuit (it premiered at Toronto and it has been all over the place around Europe), and even though it has gotten fantastic reviews and it was directed by already established director Christian Petzold, the film has received much attention. So I was thrilled when I saw that this film was in the line-up for the festival, I knew little or nothing about it, I hadn't seen any trailers and it seemed as though this one could be the festival's revelation. Still I went in just hoping to find a decent picture.
Phoenix is Directed by Christian Petzold and it stars Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf, Uwe Preuss, Michael Maertens and Valerie Koch.
The war has ended and the survivors are returning home. Are they really lucky that they survived? A woman comes back home, to Berlin, with a disfigured face and a shattered mind. Nelly is going to have her face reconstructed, the doctors ask her what face she wants, maybe of a film start, but Nelly just wants her face back. Nelly just wanted everything to be as it was before the war, she wants her life, her husband, she wants to sing in the coir again, she wants to be able to live one more time. She searches for what's lost, her husband Johnny. Johnny who might have betrayed Nelly and sent her to a concentration camp. She ultimately finds Johnny alive, working at a cabaret in Berlin. He doesn't recognize her and her heart is broken. But he sees that her new face is similar to his wife's face and he tells the stranger (Nelly, is own wife) that they could both get a lot of money by pretending that she was his wife. Nelly's healing face and broken spirit accept the challenge of impersonating herself, or at least what she once were. Johnny gives her lessons and through these lessons Nelly hopes to become what she wants was, through these lessons she hopes to win his husband back.
Only a few weeks ago Fury was released, a tired, familiar World War II picture with very little to say. An America *beep* Yeah kind of picture with a lot of violence, where the Germans have the depth of the Nazis in Dead Snow and where every single character in that tank was a mere cliché. If you are going to make a World War II picture at least have some respect for your own subject. The fact that this one was a World War II picture made me a little scared, this sub-genre is way too iterant as it seems as though they make these pictures for the explosions. Really? Should you turn such an important subject into a Michael Bay depthless picture? This one though, fortunately, it is not Fury. It pays respect to its subject and it actually has something to say.
Looking back Phoenix is actually an incredibly simple film, that doesn't even take many risks when it comes to narrative. It is simple but undeniably effective. The film is built up quite slowly and to say the truth it never takes many risky, unpredictable paths as what happens is pretty much expected. Still I found the picture to be incredibly compelling on an emotional level. Much of that is due to the fantastic acting by both Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld and because of Christian Petzold approach. An approach that might seem reserved, cold, too simple to some but I found it to be rich and absorbing. The film is like a big countdown, a crescendo, to a huge emotional climax that's simple and expected and still it struck me quite hard.
Nina Hoss continues to be the target of Christian Petzold's attention and she continues to show why she's worthy of his attention and of the attention of many others. She has already been this year in Anton Corbijn's fantastic A Most Wanted Man delivering a strong performance. I really hope to see more from her in the future because she's got some talent. She carries this picture, she doesn't only give the face to the character, she becomes the character, she shine.
I can see many being upset with the fact that the film doesn't make many bold moves and it ultimately takes the path that you expected it to take. Still it is beautifully constructed and crafted, the acting is excellent (especially from Nina Hoss, who was supposed to be present but didn't make it), it's emotionally complex and rich and it ultimately delivers the goods with a strong climax that will likely wreck you.
Rating:B
Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival #6
Phoenix has been one film that has been going through the fall film festival circuit (it premiered at Toronto and it has been all over the place around Europe), and even though it has gotten fantastic reviews and it was directed by already established director Christian Petzold, the film has received much attention. So I was thrilled when I saw that this film was in the line-up for the festival, I knew little or nothing about it, I hadn't seen any trailers and it seemed as though this one could be the festival's revelation. Still I went in just hoping to find a decent picture.
Phoenix is Directed by Christian Petzold and it stars Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf, Uwe Preuss, Michael Maertens and Valerie Koch.
The war has ended and the survivors are returning home. Are they really lucky that they survived? A woman comes back home, to Berlin, with a disfigured face and a shattered mind. Nelly is going to have her face reconstructed, the doctors ask her what face she wants, maybe of a film start, but Nelly just wants her face back. Nelly just wanted everything to be as it was before the war, she wants her life, her husband, she wants to sing in the coir again, she wants to be able to live one more time. She searches for what's lost, her husband Johnny. Johnny who might have betrayed Nelly and sent her to a concentration camp. She ultimately finds Johnny alive, working at a cabaret in Berlin. He doesn't recognize her and her heart is broken. But he sees that her new face is similar to his wife's face and he tells the stranger (Nelly, is own wife) that they could both get a lot of money by pretending that she was his wife. Nelly's healing face and broken spirit accept the challenge of impersonating herself, or at least what she once were. Johnny gives her lessons and through these lessons Nelly hopes to become what she wants was, through these lessons she hopes to win his husband back.
Only a few weeks ago Fury was released, a tired, familiar World War II picture with very little to say. An America *beep* Yeah kind of picture with a lot of violence, where the Germans have the depth of the Nazis in Dead Snow and where every single character in that tank was a mere cliché. If you are going to make a World War II picture at least have some respect for your own subject. The fact that this one was a World War II picture made me a little scared, this sub-genre is way too iterant as it seems as though they make these pictures for the explosions. Really? Should you turn such an important subject into a Michael Bay depthless picture? This one though, fortunately, it is not Fury. It pays respect to its subject and it actually has something to say.
Looking back Phoenix is actually an incredibly simple film, that doesn't even take many risks when it comes to narrative. It is simple but undeniably effective. The film is built up quite slowly and to say the truth it never takes many risky, unpredictable paths as what happens is pretty much expected. Still I found the picture to be incredibly compelling on an emotional level. Much of that is due to the fantastic acting by both Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld and because of Christian Petzold approach. An approach that might seem reserved, cold, too simple to some but I found it to be rich and absorbing. The film is like a big countdown, a crescendo, to a huge emotional climax that's simple and expected and still it struck me quite hard.
Nina Hoss continues to be the target of Christian Petzold's attention and she continues to show why she's worthy of his attention and of the attention of many others. She has already been this year in Anton Corbijn's fantastic A Most Wanted Man delivering a strong performance. I really hope to see more from her in the future because she's got some talent. She carries this picture, she doesn't only give the face to the character, she becomes the character, she shine.
I can see many being upset with the fact that the film doesn't make many bold moves and it ultimately takes the path that you expected it to take. Still it is beautifully constructed and crafted, the acting is excellent (especially from Nina Hoss, who was supposed to be present but didn't make it), it's emotionally complex and rich and it ultimately delivers the goods with a strong climax that will likely wreck you.
Rating:B
speak low
blanche-213 December 2015
What a movie.
Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, and Nina Kunzendorf star in "Phoenix," a 2014 film based on the French novel "Return from the Ashes". There was a previous film made from this novel, actually called Return from the Ashes in 1965. I remembered seeing that movie as a kid and finally found it again. It's very good, but this film is better.
Nina Hoss plays Nelly, a concentration camp survivor who was shot in the face. A government worker, Lena (Kunzendorf) in charge of helping victims, brings her to a plastic surgeon. Nelly is adamant that she wants to look exactly as she did before. The doctor can only promise to try. When she asks Lena who is paying for all this, Lena tells her that her entire family is dead and she has come into quite a bit of money.
When Nelly sees herself, the face is foreign to her and she says, "I don't exist." She stays in an apartment with Lena. Lena has found an apartment for her in Palestine, where Lena is also moving.
Nelly wants to find her husband Johnny (Zehrfeld), a non-Jew, but Lena cautions her that he betrayed her to the Nazis. She was a singer and he a pianist, so she goes to various clubs, but finally finds him working in a club called Phoenix as a dishwasher.
Johnny doesn't recognize her, but he asks her if she wants some work. He explains to her that he can't get his hands on his wife's money. He wants her to impersonate Nelly, show up alive, claim her inheritance, and in return, he will pay her.
At first, Nelly refuses, then relents. He shows her a photo of Hedy Lamar and says his wife modeled herself on that.
Nelly returns to Lena and tells her that she's going to do the impersonation and not go to Palestine. She will stay with Johnny. She knows he would never have betrayed her.
Director Christian Pezold has woven noirish tapestry about survival, love, betrayal, and guilt. It is reminiscent of Vertigo but with the specter of the Holocaust, much deeper and intense.
Nina Hoss is beyond perfection as Nelly, desperate for her old life, her old face, her husband, to wipe out all she has suffered. Like Zehrfeld, she says more with her expressions than with dialogue. Zehrfeld as Johnny presents a disturbing puzzle of denial and horrific guilt, so unbearable that he tries to recreate Nelly.
The last scene in this film, in its simplicity, is stunning and powerful.
A brilliant film, which you may want to view more than once to pick up details along the way.
Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, and Nina Kunzendorf star in "Phoenix," a 2014 film based on the French novel "Return from the Ashes". There was a previous film made from this novel, actually called Return from the Ashes in 1965. I remembered seeing that movie as a kid and finally found it again. It's very good, but this film is better.
Nina Hoss plays Nelly, a concentration camp survivor who was shot in the face. A government worker, Lena (Kunzendorf) in charge of helping victims, brings her to a plastic surgeon. Nelly is adamant that she wants to look exactly as she did before. The doctor can only promise to try. When she asks Lena who is paying for all this, Lena tells her that her entire family is dead and she has come into quite a bit of money.
When Nelly sees herself, the face is foreign to her and she says, "I don't exist." She stays in an apartment with Lena. Lena has found an apartment for her in Palestine, where Lena is also moving.
Nelly wants to find her husband Johnny (Zehrfeld), a non-Jew, but Lena cautions her that he betrayed her to the Nazis. She was a singer and he a pianist, so she goes to various clubs, but finally finds him working in a club called Phoenix as a dishwasher.
Johnny doesn't recognize her, but he asks her if she wants some work. He explains to her that he can't get his hands on his wife's money. He wants her to impersonate Nelly, show up alive, claim her inheritance, and in return, he will pay her.
At first, Nelly refuses, then relents. He shows her a photo of Hedy Lamar and says his wife modeled herself on that.
Nelly returns to Lena and tells her that she's going to do the impersonation and not go to Palestine. She will stay with Johnny. She knows he would never have betrayed her.
Director Christian Pezold has woven noirish tapestry about survival, love, betrayal, and guilt. It is reminiscent of Vertigo but with the specter of the Holocaust, much deeper and intense.
Nina Hoss is beyond perfection as Nelly, desperate for her old life, her old face, her husband, to wipe out all she has suffered. Like Zehrfeld, she says more with her expressions than with dialogue. Zehrfeld as Johnny presents a disturbing puzzle of denial and horrific guilt, so unbearable that he tries to recreate Nelly.
The last scene in this film, in its simplicity, is stunning and powerful.
A brilliant film, which you may want to view more than once to pick up details along the way.
A short film masquerading as a feature
jjustinjaeger18 August 2015
While it can be a tense and involving watch, Phoenix is, beneath the craft, a short film expanded into ninety-plus minutes. That is, at thirty minutes we'd have the effect as we have at ninety.
The film first establishes its premise, which is intriguing and deep: a woman, coming out of a Nazi concentration camp, has a face transplant due to injury. She is unrecognizable to her husband, but similar enough that, when the two reunite, he asks her to imitate his old wife (actually the protagonist) in order to inherit her property. Her motivation in not telling him who she really is is not always clear, but is justified enough by her apparent want to be identified without having to explain herself. The allegorical connection to history this plot establishes the viewer can fairly easily deduce.
What follows is, save for the provocative last scene, repetition and insistence on drawling out this plot without deepening it or taking it to new heights. So, for example, there is a sequence of events where she attempts to prove her identity to her husband by first imitating her signature and then wearing her old shoes, which fit perfectly. Each of these events, which at the film's slow pace stretch about five minutes each, say the same thing. Each deems the other unnecessary since both are to the same effect. This goes on and on, where the viewer is invested solely for the moment when he may finally recognize her.
Repetitive also are the glances and gazes between the the protagonist and her husband. The acting in combination with the editing leads to brilliant minimal drama at times, but when we're seeing the same silent facial acting towards the end of the film that we also saw in the beginning attempting to create the same effect, well, it makes you question the film's integrity.
I think the film's integrity is this: It plays it safe. It establishes an interesting metaphor, and doesn't roll with it as much as it could have. It shrinks the surrounding historical events into the evocative faces of its two leads. Artful sure, but compelling only for a while. And the bottom line is that it didn't move me. The film wanted to be devastating but I wasn't devastated. The film wanted to be subtly heart-wrenching but my heart wasn't wrenched. I felt at the end, "Alright, that was it. There it was." In other words I didn't feel much besides the mild and consistent tension throughout. There's only so much you can accomplish in a film with these parameters. This review is not primarily negative because the film was bad but because the critic consensus is overwhelmingly positive. An excellent short film, but only a good film.
The film first establishes its premise, which is intriguing and deep: a woman, coming out of a Nazi concentration camp, has a face transplant due to injury. She is unrecognizable to her husband, but similar enough that, when the two reunite, he asks her to imitate his old wife (actually the protagonist) in order to inherit her property. Her motivation in not telling him who she really is is not always clear, but is justified enough by her apparent want to be identified without having to explain herself. The allegorical connection to history this plot establishes the viewer can fairly easily deduce.
What follows is, save for the provocative last scene, repetition and insistence on drawling out this plot without deepening it or taking it to new heights. So, for example, there is a sequence of events where she attempts to prove her identity to her husband by first imitating her signature and then wearing her old shoes, which fit perfectly. Each of these events, which at the film's slow pace stretch about five minutes each, say the same thing. Each deems the other unnecessary since both are to the same effect. This goes on and on, where the viewer is invested solely for the moment when he may finally recognize her.
Repetitive also are the glances and gazes between the the protagonist and her husband. The acting in combination with the editing leads to brilliant minimal drama at times, but when we're seeing the same silent facial acting towards the end of the film that we also saw in the beginning attempting to create the same effect, well, it makes you question the film's integrity.
I think the film's integrity is this: It plays it safe. It establishes an interesting metaphor, and doesn't roll with it as much as it could have. It shrinks the surrounding historical events into the evocative faces of its two leads. Artful sure, but compelling only for a while. And the bottom line is that it didn't move me. The film wanted to be devastating but I wasn't devastated. The film wanted to be subtly heart-wrenching but my heart wasn't wrenched. I felt at the end, "Alright, that was it. There it was." In other words I didn't feel much besides the mild and consistent tension throughout. There's only so much you can accomplish in a film with these parameters. This review is not primarily negative because the film was bad but because the critic consensus is overwhelmingly positive. An excellent short film, but only a good film.
Resonant and powerful
howard.schumann16 October 2014
Warning: Spoilers
"I feel wherever I go, that tomorrow is near, tomorrow is here, and always too soon" – Speak Low, Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash
Just released from Auschwitz, Nelly Lenz's (Nina Hoss) face is disfigured and bandaged as she crosses a checkpoint in Berlin in 1945 with her friend Lene (Nina Kunzendorf), a worker for the Jewish Agency for Palestine. Though Nelly is free to go anywhere, she is encouraged by Lene to move to Haifa, but is reluctant to move on. Based on a novel by Hubert Monteilhet from a screenplay co-written by the director and the late Harun Farocki, Christian Petzold's Phoenix explores the reality of German guilt and the trauma of those who survived, focusing on two people, one who desperately wants to forget the past and the other who is unable to let go of it.
Before undergoing restorative surgery, Nelly says, "I want to look the same as before," but it is not to be. Her face is rebuilt but she is now unrecognizable and only a sad reminder of the alluring night club singer she used to be, a shadow who walks ghost-like through the ruins of Berlin searching for her husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld), whose love she claims was the only thing that kept her alive in the dark days. Lene tells her to stay away, that Johnny, a non-Jew, betrayed her to the Nazis and then divorced her, but Nelly refuses to believe it is true. The record shows, however that Johnny was arrested on October 4th and released on October 6th, the same day Nelly was arrested.
When she finds the former pianist, now a busboy in a night club named "The Phoenix," he notices that she looks like Nelly but is so convinced that his wife is dead that he cannot give credence to the thought of her survival. Whether he truly does not recognize her or simply cannot confront the role he played in her arrest is uncertain but brings to mind the proverbial saying, "There are none so blind as those that will not see." Johnny sees only that Nelly, having lost her family in the war, stands to inherit a small fortune locked away in a Swiss bank. Creating the atmosphere of a Hitchcock-like film noir, Johnny's small, crowded apartment becomes the location where a scheme is hatched in to claim Nelly's money and divide it between them. To that end, Johnny trains her to look, act, and talk like Nelly.
The beleaguered woman plays his game, not knowing where it will lead but afraid to tell him the truth. Masterly crafted by Petzold and cinematographer Hans Fromm, Phoenix is marked by stunning performances from Zehrfeld who co-starred in Petzold's last film Barbara, and by Nina Hoss whose haunting performance is unforgettable. Hoss' shattered look, repressed emotions, and shaky voice are so natural that her gradual awakening to the reality of what her life is about truly epitomizes a Phoenix rising from the ashes. Though oddly rejected by both Cannes and Venice, Phoenix may be remembered long after the Festival winners have been forgotten, particularly the film's final scene, a moment that is so resonant and powerful that it may become an important part of film history.
Just released from Auschwitz, Nelly Lenz's (Nina Hoss) face is disfigured and bandaged as she crosses a checkpoint in Berlin in 1945 with her friend Lene (Nina Kunzendorf), a worker for the Jewish Agency for Palestine. Though Nelly is free to go anywhere, she is encouraged by Lene to move to Haifa, but is reluctant to move on. Based on a novel by Hubert Monteilhet from a screenplay co-written by the director and the late Harun Farocki, Christian Petzold's Phoenix explores the reality of German guilt and the trauma of those who survived, focusing on two people, one who desperately wants to forget the past and the other who is unable to let go of it.
Before undergoing restorative surgery, Nelly says, "I want to look the same as before," but it is not to be. Her face is rebuilt but she is now unrecognizable and only a sad reminder of the alluring night club singer she used to be, a shadow who walks ghost-like through the ruins of Berlin searching for her husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld), whose love she claims was the only thing that kept her alive in the dark days. Lene tells her to stay away, that Johnny, a non-Jew, betrayed her to the Nazis and then divorced her, but Nelly refuses to believe it is true. The record shows, however that Johnny was arrested on October 4th and released on October 6th, the same day Nelly was arrested.
When she finds the former pianist, now a busboy in a night club named "The Phoenix," he notices that she looks like Nelly but is so convinced that his wife is dead that he cannot give credence to the thought of her survival. Whether he truly does not recognize her or simply cannot confront the role he played in her arrest is uncertain but brings to mind the proverbial saying, "There are none so blind as those that will not see." Johnny sees only that Nelly, having lost her family in the war, stands to inherit a small fortune locked away in a Swiss bank. Creating the atmosphere of a Hitchcock-like film noir, Johnny's small, crowded apartment becomes the location where a scheme is hatched in to claim Nelly's money and divide it between them. To that end, Johnny trains her to look, act, and talk like Nelly.
The beleaguered woman plays his game, not knowing where it will lead but afraid to tell him the truth. Masterly crafted by Petzold and cinematographer Hans Fromm, Phoenix is marked by stunning performances from Zehrfeld who co-starred in Petzold's last film Barbara, and by Nina Hoss whose haunting performance is unforgettable. Hoss' shattered look, repressed emotions, and shaky voice are so natural that her gradual awakening to the reality of what her life is about truly epitomizes a Phoenix rising from the ashes. Though oddly rejected by both Cannes and Venice, Phoenix may be remembered long after the Festival winners have been forgotten, particularly the film's final scene, a moment that is so resonant and powerful that it may become an important part of film history.
Lovely decision by Petzold/Farocki to get Ms Hoss to sing Ogden Nash's "Speak Low" at the end
JuguAbraham13 July 2021
This film of Christian Petzold will make an indelible impression on the minds of viewers who miss out on the fact that the tale is based on a book by a French writer named Hubert Monteilhet who wrote the novel "Le Retour des Cendres. " Petzold and co-scriptwriter Haroun Farocki, who usually develop original scripts, adapts this tale with some fascinating additions. The final film is closer to the novel than the Hollywood film "The Return from Ashes" (also based on the same novel) directed by J Lee Thompson with Ingrid Thulin, where a second woman is introduced into the plot, which thankfully is not in Petzold's film. Petzold and Farocki are wonderful scriptwriters dealing with themes of outsiders trying to fit into Germany--here it is a lovely tale of a Jewess opting to live in Germany rather than in Israel/Palestine. Apart from a wonderful performance by Nina Hoss, I think the crowning glory was to select the song "Speak Low," written by Ogden Nash and Kurt Weill and sung by Ms Hoss at the end. This is one of Petzold 's films where cinematographer Hans Fromm, who has worked on all the Petzold films truly makes an impact. A trivia: the lead pair of actors are the same as in Petzold's "Barbara" and how different they appear in both!
The curtain descends, everything ends....
leigh-marker28 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Will the references to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo never end? A very blatant citation is in David Lynch's Twin Peaks, with Sheryl Lee playing both blonde victim Laura Palmer and her cousin, brunette doppelganger Madeleine. Before and after that, there have been several instances, some more successful than others. Christian Petzold's glorious war drama, "Phoenix", falls firmly into the first category. Disfigured Jewish musician Nelly Lenz (the ever luminous Nina Hoss) has to undergo a painful facial reconstruction, after having survived the horror of the concentration camps. Helped by close friend Lene (Nina Kunzendorf), Nelly slowly comes back to life, but her main goal is to find her beloved husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld). We are at the end of World War II and Berlin is nothing but a heap of rubble. People roam the streets aimlessly and, among the destruction and the uncertainty, there is a sense of a nation having lost its identity. Nelly looks at herself in a mirror and sees a stranger and when Lene tells her "You're Jewish", as if to assert at least one undeniable truth, Nelly refuses to accept it. The only thing that tethers her to reality is the love for her lost husband and she stumbles on him by chance, working as a busboy at the Phoenix cabaret. He doesn't recognise her, but acknowledges a passing resemblance to his allegedly dead wife. Nelly is heartbroken, but doesn't have the courage to reveal the truth. Johannes (who is not Jewish and no longer wants to be called Johnny) knows that his wife has an unclaimed fortune in a Swiss bank, so he devises a plan and here's the Vertigo nod to transform this stranger into his dead wife. Nelly agrees to the plan, hoping that by living at such close quarters, he will eventually discover her real identity. He doesn't. Even when it becomes quite evident that, as Lene suggested, he'd betrayed her to the Nazis, Nelly keeps her side of the bargain, growing more confident as she resumes her former identity, as she struggles to be the woman she no longer is. The finale is powerful and moving: I won't reveal it, but I'll just say that it involves a tattoo and a Kurt Weill song. It will stay with you long after the words "the end". The premise of "Phoenix" is obviously rather far fetched, but the acting, cinematography and direction are all stunning and I am quite surprised the film has not been more widely praised (I was expecting it to get an Oscar nod). Nina Hoss, who is a Petzold regular and was great in "Barbara", gives a career-best performance, fine-tuning the metamorphosis of the character from haggard and desperate concentration camp victim to brittle, yet strong and confident survivor. A real Phoenix, rising from the ashes of a past that can no longer be recreated. Ronald Zehrfeld, who also starred in "Barbara", is wonderful as Johannes, a man whose refusal to see what's in front of his eyes is steadfast at first, but slowly crumbles as the film unfolds, and finally collapses in an emotional reveal that the actor depicts with understated emotional mastery. But the real star of the film is the director, the fantastic Christian Petzold, who has crafted a moving, intelligent and unforgettable story, one that never tries to cheaply tug at your heartstrings. Regardless of his historical setting, it's a universal tale that tells of how we all strive for identity and meaning and of how, in the face of the worst possible betrayal, we can still find the strength to turn
Intelligent and emotional, but also contrived
paul2001sw-17 April 2019
In Christoph Petzold's film 'Phoenix', Nina Hoss plays Nelly, a Jewish woman returned to postwar Germany from the concentration camps, both mentally and physically scarred by her experience, although having undergone superficial repair by extensive plastic surgery. In her new guise, she's drawn back to her husband, even though he may have betrayed her and now, certain his wife is dead, believes Nelly to be a doppleganger who he can use to lay claim to her wealth. But Nelly accepts him anyway, grateful for the opportunity to play the part of her former self. It's an intriguing psychological set-up. But it's somewhat contrived, and Nelly's stunning physical recovery into a beautiful (but supposedly unrecongisable) woman doesn't quite ring true. I liked the film because of the acknowledgement, rarely made in Holywood, that revenge isn't always the driving human motive, even when it might appear to be justified. But the story as presented can't quite carry the full weight of its enquiry into human nature.
Weighed Down by Implausibilities
mbeagh31 August 2015
There is a plethora of films dealing with the second world war and the holocaust, but relatively few dealing with Germany after the war and the plight of people returning from concentration or prison camps. So I was happy go see Phoenix. The film successfully captures the period, with brusque American occupation soldiers, Berlin reduced to rubble, and people struggling to survive and adapt to new realities. Unfortunately, the story gets bogged down in one implausible plot contrivance after another, which saps it of any dramatic strength despite fine acting. I won't say what these are in the chance that you may see the film. But consider yourself warned.
Speak Low
GManfred29 July 2015
Kurt Weill's romantic ballad never seemed so mournful or out-of-place as background music for "Phoenix", a German language drama playing at the few theaters not catering to Hollywood refuse. It is another late model indie film in which the hero is a heroine, a female rather than a muscular, tough-talking guy.
Nina Hoss plays Nelly Lenz, who used to be in love with her husband until WWII intervened and she was packed off to a concentration camp. We pick up the story shortly after the war as she is released to an aid worker/friend who is trying to get her to a hospital. She is suffering from a gunshot wound to her face, as well as PTSD. Tough call to say which is worse. Her main thought is to find her husband and to be in love once more, but, as they say, you can't go home again. Check other reviews for events that follow.
Had not seen Nina Hoss before - she works primarily in German films. Her performance as a woman torn body and soul was magnificent and is an Oscar-worthy achievement. Her husband, played by Ronald Zehrfeld, is almost as good. I thought the set design recreating Berlin wrecked by war was as good as you can see, almost as good as in "Four In A Jeep"(1951), although that one was filmed in the actual wreckage of Berlin.
The story, while absorbing, moves slowly but the overall effect is like a hypnotic spell (I would imagine). I was especially taken by the ending, which packs a wallop. Some reviews state that the director did not know how to end the picture. I think this was the only way. According to Weill's lovely lyrics,
"The curtain descends, everything ends, too soon, too soon".
Nina Hoss plays Nelly Lenz, who used to be in love with her husband until WWII intervened and she was packed off to a concentration camp. We pick up the story shortly after the war as she is released to an aid worker/friend who is trying to get her to a hospital. She is suffering from a gunshot wound to her face, as well as PTSD. Tough call to say which is worse. Her main thought is to find her husband and to be in love once more, but, as they say, you can't go home again. Check other reviews for events that follow.
Had not seen Nina Hoss before - she works primarily in German films. Her performance as a woman torn body and soul was magnificent and is an Oscar-worthy achievement. Her husband, played by Ronald Zehrfeld, is almost as good. I thought the set design recreating Berlin wrecked by war was as good as you can see, almost as good as in "Four In A Jeep"(1951), although that one was filmed in the actual wreckage of Berlin.
The story, while absorbing, moves slowly but the overall effect is like a hypnotic spell (I would imagine). I was especially taken by the ending, which packs a wallop. Some reviews state that the director did not know how to end the picture. I think this was the only way. According to Weill's lovely lyrics,
"The curtain descends, everything ends, too soon, too soon".
Plot holes
dmynd16 August 2015
Warning: Spoilers
While the performances were quite good, and the story overall was engaging enough for me to want to see it through to the end, there were holes. This is a woman whose face, we are told, is dramatically different, and whose husband does not recognize her. Yet, a person who had only seen her perhaps a couple of times in the past, at least more than a year before, recognizes her, and calls her by name. Also, how did her friend have the housekeeper in her employment from March to November 1945 if the friend was also Jewish? I think these spoiled the experience for me, as I was pondering them rather than being able to focus on the story. There were gaps in the back stories that needed to be filled. Some movies are too long. This one was short enough that a few more minutes to explain some of the problem areas mentioned above could have been resolved, and made this a better film.
intriguing story
SnoopyStyle31 January 2017
It's Germany after WWII. Nelly Lenz is a Nazi camp survivor with facial disfigurements. She and her companion Lene Winter are returning home to retrieve their family inheritances. She gets reconstruction surgery resulting in a slightly different face. She wants to reunite with her husband Johnny Lenz despite Lene's insistence that he's the one who turned her in to the Nazis. Lene wants to build the new state of Israel. Nelly finds Johnny working at the nightclub Phoenix. He doesn't recognize her and wants her to pretend to be Nelly for a split of her estate.
Expositions in movies are often derided but a good exposition is a necessity. There are a lot of murky questions. The movie doles out the story in dribs and drabs. I still don't know Nelly and Lene's actual relationship, and why Nelly assumes the identity of Esther. I'm more willing to buy into the central premise of her conflicted feelings about Johnny and his cluelessness to her true identity. It's a fascinating interior conflict and there's a real tension about the truth of her discovery.
Expositions in movies are often derided but a good exposition is a necessity. There are a lot of murky questions. The movie doles out the story in dribs and drabs. I still don't know Nelly and Lene's actual relationship, and why Nelly assumes the identity of Esther. I'm more willing to buy into the central premise of her conflicted feelings about Johnny and his cluelessness to her true identity. It's a fascinating interior conflict and there's a real tension about the truth of her discovery.
Difficult premise, bravura execution
reev017 October 2014
This could have been a disaster. The premise (which I will not spoil, but is easy to find) takes some swallowing, but director Petzold and star Hess get you over the initial bump to set up a situation of great tension. The difficulty then becomes resolving that satisfactorily - and when I saw Nina Hess introduce this movie at the London Film Festival, she said that initially they weren't sure how to end it - but they pull off an absolutely bravura climax to the tale, an unforgettable scene, cinema at its finest.
Hess is brilliant in the central role, a really difficult part that she makes absolutely convincing. The other star here is the cinematography. There are other fine moments too - a really creepy scene early on full of women with bandaged faces - that help set the atmosphere. But the real thrill is to see a story told with such conviction and concluded with such panache.
Hess is brilliant in the central role, a really difficult part that she makes absolutely convincing. The other star here is the cinematography. There are other fine moments too - a really creepy scene early on full of women with bandaged faces - that help set the atmosphere. But the real thrill is to see a story told with such conviction and concluded with such panache.
Too soon, too soon
magdillane30 November 2016
From the opening soundtrack on a blank screen, bass and piano, It was just a couple of chords, and I was hooked! The music of Kurt Weill's standard, Speak Low, is threaded throughout the movie. (Words by Ogden Nash). I was so taken by the song that I must have listened to A dozen or so versions, from Billie Holliday to Kiri Te Kanawa. And I kept coming back to Nina Hoss' version and Weill's version. I go on about this tune because it encapsulates so brilliantly all the melancholy of Phoenix. Post WW2 Berlin, a shell of itself, Holocaust survivors looking to repair their broken spirits, Berliners struggling to eke out a living, all played out against a woman searching for her past, for her lost husband. Phoenix, a Berlin nightclub, Phoenix rising from the ashes. It's all there. Thank you Petzold.
Another masterpiece from director Christian Petzhold
paul-allaer30 August 2015
"Phoenix" (2014 release from Germany; 98 min.) brings the story of Nelly (played by Nona Hoss). As the movie opens, we see a badly injured Nelly being driven to the hospital for facial reconstruction. Upon entering Berlin's American Zone, the US guard forces Nelly to remove the bandage, which she does, to the belated horror of the guard. After the facial reconstruction (or "re-creation" as her friend Lene calls it), Nelly only has a fleeting resemblance of her old self. Eventually Nelly goes looking for her husband Johnny. When she locates him, he does not recognize her, but instead he asks her to pretend to be Nelly, so as to be able to claim Nelly's family inheritance. At this time we are 15 min, into the movie, but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.
Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from German director Christian Petzhold, who previously has brought masterpieces like Barbara, Yerichow, Yella (all of which also star Noina Hoss), The State I Am In, and Gespenster. Petzhold is in my opinion one of Europe's most important and best directors, period. "Phoenix" touches many aspects: there is the immediate aftermath of WWII, and the enormous scars (physical, mental, and other) incurred by the Jewish people who managed to somehow survive; then there is the psychological mind games played by both Johnny and Nelly (did Johnny betray Nelly during the war? is Nelly betraying Johnny now?). It all plays out brilliantly. Check out the movie's final scene (no worries, I won't spoil), which stunned me and everyone else in the theater. Nina Hoss, in her 4th collaboration with Petzhold, brings another daring and touching performance as the shattered and brittle Nelly. Wow, just wow.
Even though this movie is a year old, it just now found its way to my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. Better later than never, I suppose. I couldn't wait to see "Phoenix". The matinée screening where I saw this at this weekend was PACKED, somewhat to my surprise and delight. If you like a top-notch quality foreign movie that will stay with you long after you've seen it, you cannot go wrong with this, be it at the theater, on Amazon Instant Video, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. "Phoenix" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from German director Christian Petzhold, who previously has brought masterpieces like Barbara, Yerichow, Yella (all of which also star Noina Hoss), The State I Am In, and Gespenster. Petzhold is in my opinion one of Europe's most important and best directors, period. "Phoenix" touches many aspects: there is the immediate aftermath of WWII, and the enormous scars (physical, mental, and other) incurred by the Jewish people who managed to somehow survive; then there is the psychological mind games played by both Johnny and Nelly (did Johnny betray Nelly during the war? is Nelly betraying Johnny now?). It all plays out brilliantly. Check out the movie's final scene (no worries, I won't spoil), which stunned me and everyone else in the theater. Nina Hoss, in her 4th collaboration with Petzhold, brings another daring and touching performance as the shattered and brittle Nelly. Wow, just wow.
Even though this movie is a year old, it just now found its way to my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. Better later than never, I suppose. I couldn't wait to see "Phoenix". The matinée screening where I saw this at this weekend was PACKED, somewhat to my surprise and delight. If you like a top-notch quality foreign movie that will stay with you long after you've seen it, you cannot go wrong with this, be it at the theater, on Amazon Instant Video, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. "Phoenix" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
To sing the impossible song...
ThurstonHunger13 July 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The movie feels both like an adaptation of a short story, and yet also a metaphor for a lengthy and heavy thesis. It is a slow-paced film, with a character striving to guide the film towards its conclusion. It is a unique film.
Definite spoilers follow, so stop reading and perhaps simply see the film for yourself. I will say I found the film thought-provoking upon reflection afterwards. More so than while watching it.
--
So the notion of Jewish survivors returning to Germany is a charged one, perhaps some may feel similarly to spouses returning to their abusive partners. Both come into play in this film, Nelly's dream feels impossible.
And yet...
Johnny has his plans, as does the director. They conflict, and the director wins while tipping his hat in multiple ways. The lack of any happy flashback memories, the current employment of Johnny, and the character of Lena as an embodiment of conscience, we know where we are going, and not just to the train station.
Speaking of Lena, is she the inverted half of Nelly? (Typing their names now, phonetically they even *sound* reversed). Is Lenny the touchstone for us the audience?
Or are we the audience cast as the embracing friends who greet Nelly upon her impossible return? The most difficult part of the film was hearing Johnny predict their responses, despite Nelly's protestations.
Anyways a story of "you can't go home again" is not unfamiliar, but not in this sense. Home is more than the house you were evicted from, it's your country, your "friends." It's your sense of security and your very sense of self.
While the nightclub gives the film its name, Nelly's character was truly left for dead before her rise from ashes and bullets. This is a rare return. The singer gets a just as rare encore, the song is slow, sad and poignant.
Singing an impossible song, after surviving an unthinkable nightmare.
Definite spoilers follow, so stop reading and perhaps simply see the film for yourself. I will say I found the film thought-provoking upon reflection afterwards. More so than while watching it.
--
So the notion of Jewish survivors returning to Germany is a charged one, perhaps some may feel similarly to spouses returning to their abusive partners. Both come into play in this film, Nelly's dream feels impossible.
And yet...
Johnny has his plans, as does the director. They conflict, and the director wins while tipping his hat in multiple ways. The lack of any happy flashback memories, the current employment of Johnny, and the character of Lena as an embodiment of conscience, we know where we are going, and not just to the train station.
Speaking of Lena, is she the inverted half of Nelly? (Typing their names now, phonetically they even *sound* reversed). Is Lenny the touchstone for us the audience?
Or are we the audience cast as the embracing friends who greet Nelly upon her impossible return? The most difficult part of the film was hearing Johnny predict their responses, despite Nelly's protestations.
Anyways a story of "you can't go home again" is not unfamiliar, but not in this sense. Home is more than the house you were evicted from, it's your country, your "friends." It's your sense of security and your very sense of self.
While the nightclub gives the film its name, Nelly's character was truly left for dead before her rise from ashes and bullets. This is a rare return. The singer gets a just as rare encore, the song is slow, sad and poignant.
Singing an impossible song, after surviving an unthinkable nightmare.
See it.
tim-downie22 November 2014
The only weak aspect of this film is that the central idea is just not quite believable (albeit easily more believable than most mainstream films). Everything else was quite brilliant. There are plenty of films about Jews in Nazi Germany and a good few films set in the aftermath of world war 2. This is however the first film I have seen exploring the lives and emotions of Jews in post war Germany trying to reclaim their lost monies and contemplating where to spend their future lives. In this respect the film portrays two opposing views very powerfully. The acting, screen play, cinematography and direction is superb. I predicted aspects of the climax but the subtleties were a surprise (no spoilers here). Two of the three main roles are played by women, are strong characters and passes the Bechdel Test with in the first few minutes.
From darkness into light
nqure27 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
'Phoenix' is based on a melodramatic novel by Hubert Monteilhet which was made into a 60s film about a Holocaust survivor returning to find her former lover, believing her to be dead, now involved with her daughter, leading to a tale of betrayal & murder. In 'Phoenix' the emotional story takes precedence over the melodrama/thriller elements, the film about the emotional journey of a survivor & the husband who may or may not have betrayed her.
The film begins with a film-noir atmosphere, though it's quite apparent that this isn't a thriller but more a study of love, betrayal & deception. It's slow burning in pace, with hints & revelations rather than convoluted plot twists. The film is framed by two key songs, Cole Porter's 'Night & Day', one of romantic longing , the other Kurt Weill's 'Speak Low'.
Nelly is a singer who has survived Auschwitz but suffered physical disfigurement so that her face has to undergo reconstruction. She is supported by her friend Lene, who plans a new future for them in Palestine. Lene asks Nelly to sing but she no longer has the strength & confidence to do so. Nelly is also obsessed by her husband & accompanist, Johannes 'Johnny' Lenz ('Johnny' conjuring up 'Surabaya Johnny', another cabaret song), who now works as a bottle-collector (& possible pimp?) at the Phoenix night-club frequented by US servicemen. The hues of the club are shot in red, haunting & dream-like ('Only mad-men can enter', Steppenwolf) with echoes of 'Red Road', another film about a woman in pursuit of a man.
Nelly is still in love with the husband, who she cannot bring herself to believe betrayed her to the authorities despite Lene's misgivings. Lene is protective of Nelly, even giving her a revolver; a detail which proves to have tragic significance later though not in the way we expect. Nelly encounters Johannes once again, who is struck at once by the likeness she bears to the wife he now believes is dead. And so begins a ruse to use Esther, the alias used by Nelly, to act like his wife so that he can use her to claim her fortune.
Nelly, acting out her role as Esther, goes along with the scheme, perhaps as a way of reliving the past & getting close to Johannes, even though this is simply yet another deception (self) within a deception. Johannes clearly has no understanding of what victims endured; the dramatic irony is that we, the audience, are probably more aware than Nelly is. He gives Esther/Nelly, the chic Parisian dress his 'dead' wife used to wear, the flowers resembling lips (Judas' kiss). Nelly is emotionally confused at how a survivor could wear such a bright dress (as if her true self is speaking). Johannes brushes her qualms aside, revealing that he has no understanding of the emotional/psychological suffering a survivor has gone through – in contrast to Lene who will pay the ultimate price.
Trapped in the past, Nelly has survived Auschwitz but emotionally she has remained in 1944 before her arrest. She remains quite literally in the dark when she confides in Lene at night, who struggles to make her see the truth. On a bike ride with Johannes, she murmurs languidly that if he betrayed his wife, then it must have been inadvertent. But she is abruptly brought to reality by the loss of the one person who showed her genuine love & support & leaves her damning proof of Johannes' guilt. It could be seen as another betrayal, this time of trust.
The film is about not only a physical disfigurement but the moral one that has taken place within Johannes himself. There is one scene where Nelly & Johannes make their preparations in a hotel room & Nelly watches him through the frosted glass: she now sees through him, or perhaps the blurred outline suggests she never really knew him.
The final confrontation & 'revenge' is low-key but perhaps all the more powerful for that rather than contrived melodrama. Nelly, who has been hesitant & reluctant to sing, sings 'Speak Low' which becomes a song of farewell. The final image is striking of a woman walking out of a door, bathed in sunlight. Nelly finally sees that the past can be no more. She has been re-born emotionally, so to speak.
The film begins with a film-noir atmosphere, though it's quite apparent that this isn't a thriller but more a study of love, betrayal & deception. It's slow burning in pace, with hints & revelations rather than convoluted plot twists. The film is framed by two key songs, Cole Porter's 'Night & Day', one of romantic longing , the other Kurt Weill's 'Speak Low'.
Nelly is a singer who has survived Auschwitz but suffered physical disfigurement so that her face has to undergo reconstruction. She is supported by her friend Lene, who plans a new future for them in Palestine. Lene asks Nelly to sing but she no longer has the strength & confidence to do so. Nelly is also obsessed by her husband & accompanist, Johannes 'Johnny' Lenz ('Johnny' conjuring up 'Surabaya Johnny', another cabaret song), who now works as a bottle-collector (& possible pimp?) at the Phoenix night-club frequented by US servicemen. The hues of the club are shot in red, haunting & dream-like ('Only mad-men can enter', Steppenwolf) with echoes of 'Red Road', another film about a woman in pursuit of a man.
Nelly is still in love with the husband, who she cannot bring herself to believe betrayed her to the authorities despite Lene's misgivings. Lene is protective of Nelly, even giving her a revolver; a detail which proves to have tragic significance later though not in the way we expect. Nelly encounters Johannes once again, who is struck at once by the likeness she bears to the wife he now believes is dead. And so begins a ruse to use Esther, the alias used by Nelly, to act like his wife so that he can use her to claim her fortune.
Nelly, acting out her role as Esther, goes along with the scheme, perhaps as a way of reliving the past & getting close to Johannes, even though this is simply yet another deception (self) within a deception. Johannes clearly has no understanding of what victims endured; the dramatic irony is that we, the audience, are probably more aware than Nelly is. He gives Esther/Nelly, the chic Parisian dress his 'dead' wife used to wear, the flowers resembling lips (Judas' kiss). Nelly is emotionally confused at how a survivor could wear such a bright dress (as if her true self is speaking). Johannes brushes her qualms aside, revealing that he has no understanding of the emotional/psychological suffering a survivor has gone through – in contrast to Lene who will pay the ultimate price.
Trapped in the past, Nelly has survived Auschwitz but emotionally she has remained in 1944 before her arrest. She remains quite literally in the dark when she confides in Lene at night, who struggles to make her see the truth. On a bike ride with Johannes, she murmurs languidly that if he betrayed his wife, then it must have been inadvertent. But she is abruptly brought to reality by the loss of the one person who showed her genuine love & support & leaves her damning proof of Johannes' guilt. It could be seen as another betrayal, this time of trust.
The film is about not only a physical disfigurement but the moral one that has taken place within Johannes himself. There is one scene where Nelly & Johannes make their preparations in a hotel room & Nelly watches him through the frosted glass: she now sees through him, or perhaps the blurred outline suggests she never really knew him.
The final confrontation & 'revenge' is low-key but perhaps all the more powerful for that rather than contrived melodrama. Nelly, who has been hesitant & reluctant to sing, sings 'Speak Low' which becomes a song of farewell. The final image is striking of a woman walking out of a door, bathed in sunlight. Nelly finally sees that the past can be no more. She has been re-born emotionally, so to speak.
Deeply flawed script
malkron24 May 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The vote of 5 balances 10 for the acting and photography and about 0 for the script, which is mostly rubbish.
We are asked to accept astronomically remote coincidence at several points, and (as I see it) an unmotivated suicide as a pivotal event.
The recurring musical theme, which figures in the denouement is "Speak Low" by Kurt Weil. It was in a 1943 Broadway show, "One Touch of Venus." In the script, she and Johnny had performed the song. Nelly was arrested in October, 1944. Kurt Weil had fled Nazi Germany; his music was deemed decadent and could not have been performed in Germany in or around 1944.
Johnny had divorced Nelly, the survivor, just days before her arrest, apparently without notice to her, which might be possible because she is Jewish, but then what right could he have to her inheritance after the war?
Deeply unsatisfying film.
We are asked to accept astronomically remote coincidence at several points, and (as I see it) an unmotivated suicide as a pivotal event.
The recurring musical theme, which figures in the denouement is "Speak Low" by Kurt Weil. It was in a 1943 Broadway show, "One Touch of Venus." In the script, she and Johnny had performed the song. Nelly was arrested in October, 1944. Kurt Weil had fled Nazi Germany; his music was deemed decadent and could not have been performed in Germany in or around 1944.
Johnny had divorced Nelly, the survivor, just days before her arrest, apparently without notice to her, which might be possible because she is Jewish, but then what right could he have to her inheritance after the war?
Deeply unsatisfying film.
A Poignant, Heartfelt & Gripping Story Of Love, Loss, Betrayal & Retribution
CinemaClown15 January 2016
A poignant, heartfelt & gripping story of love, loss, betrayal & retribution, Phoenix is crafted with composure, narrated with sensitivity, brims with suppressed emotions and is further elevated by a smashing lead performance from Nina Hoss to finish as a a heartbreaking love story & a satisfying revenge drama.
Set at the aftermath of the Second World War, Phoenix tells the story of a disfigured concentration camp survivor who after undergoing a facial reconstruction surgery for damage caused by a bullet wound returns to Berlin to look for her husband whom she still loves but who also may have played a role in betraying her to the Nazis.
Co-written & directed by Christian Petzold, the film is attention grabbing from the first sequence & sets its main plot in a very calm but steady manner. The post-World War atmosphere is wonderfully recreated, the camera always keeps its focus on the characters than the surroundings they are in, editing unfolds the plot at a relaxed pace while music remains in sync with transpiring events.
The performances however add a great deal to the story plus the scripted characters exhibit some welcome depth which its cast is able to explore quite conveniently in their given roles. Leading the entire cast from the front is Nina Hoss in a terrific turn as the Holocaust survivor and her chemistry with both Ronald Zehrfeld & Nina Kunzendorf, who play her husband & friend respectively, simply clicks.
On an overall scale, Phoenix brims with great emotional depth, compelling characters & a riveting storyline and is one amongst the better films of its year. The screenplay alone is strong enough to carry the whole picture all the way but the expertly carried out technical aspects & sincere inputs from its cast adds enhancements of its own to the entire experience. Emotionally resonant & thoroughly fine-tuned, this German drama is worth a shot.
Set at the aftermath of the Second World War, Phoenix tells the story of a disfigured concentration camp survivor who after undergoing a facial reconstruction surgery for damage caused by a bullet wound returns to Berlin to look for her husband whom she still loves but who also may have played a role in betraying her to the Nazis.
Co-written & directed by Christian Petzold, the film is attention grabbing from the first sequence & sets its main plot in a very calm but steady manner. The post-World War atmosphere is wonderfully recreated, the camera always keeps its focus on the characters than the surroundings they are in, editing unfolds the plot at a relaxed pace while music remains in sync with transpiring events.
The performances however add a great deal to the story plus the scripted characters exhibit some welcome depth which its cast is able to explore quite conveniently in their given roles. Leading the entire cast from the front is Nina Hoss in a terrific turn as the Holocaust survivor and her chemistry with both Ronald Zehrfeld & Nina Kunzendorf, who play her husband & friend respectively, simply clicks.
On an overall scale, Phoenix brims with great emotional depth, compelling characters & a riveting storyline and is one amongst the better films of its year. The screenplay alone is strong enough to carry the whole picture all the way but the expertly carried out technical aspects & sincere inputs from its cast adds enhancements of its own to the entire experience. Emotionally resonant & thoroughly fine-tuned, this German drama is worth a shot.
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